HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-04-07, Page 5Arthur Black
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1999. PAGE 5.
Lotteries - there’s a
lot-to lose
So ... did you buy a lottery ticket last week?
As usual? Checked the winning numbers
yesterday? Lost again? As usual?
Lucky you.
It could have been much worse. Your
numbers could have come up and made you an
instant multi-millionaire.
You'd think you were on top of the world.
More likely, your troubles would just be
beginning.
Consider the people of Peschici, a tiny town
in rural Italy. Three thousand people live in
Peschici and they've never had it plush. They
are fishing folk. Their livelihoods go up and
down like the Mediterranean tides, but even in
a good year with plenty of fish, the streets of
Peschici are not clogged with Alfa Romeos
and beautiful people flashing Visa Platinum
cards. Chronic unemployment dogs Peschici,
running at about 30 per cent of the workforce.
In other words, one in three adults is usually
out of work.
The citizens of Peschici are poor and they're
used to it.
International Scene
International year of
older persons
The U.N. has designated 1999 as the
"International Year of Older Persons" and,
since I fall in that category, having finally
admitted that I cannot stay at the age of 39
forever, I thought I had better comment, on
behalf of all older persons, on this momentous
event.
While I can remember very well my
childhood, unpleasant as it may have been, and
my life after 21, when the pleasant things
started to catch up with me, I can honestly say
that, in order to understand how older people
feel, you literally have to experience it.
For those of my readers who think that it is
all downhill after 60 (or even 55), let me set
the record straight. By that age you have the
maturity to do things that you were not
capable of doing before, you appreciate the
little things in life more and you can contribute
a great deal to the world in general.
Who knows, you might even contribute
more positive things in your field than you
ever did in your younger years.
I think some of the best work I have ever
done included my activities in the Czech
Republic the last two years while the students
1 taught at Western gave me a rating of 4.2 out
of 5. I had no trouble relating to them, there
was nothing like a communications or
So you can imagine the sensation when the
news came out that a group of 100 locals had
won big in the Italian State Lottery.
Fifty-five and a half million dollars big.
Each winning ticket holder got better than
$500,000 - or about 30 years’ salary for the
average Peschici fisherman or farm labourer.
One hundred Peschici citizens were suddenly
- instantly - rich beyond their wildest
imaginings.
Unfortunately, that left about 2, 900 locals
right where they'd always been. It didn’t take
long for the colour green to wash over the
town of Peschici.
A local butcher who used to be everybody's
friend turned sullen, muttering oaths and
threats. Townsfolk heard him growl that
"someone was going to get killed”.
The problem? The butcher was usually
among the people who got together to buy
tickets, but this time, someone had failed to
reserve his ticket.
Meanwhile, Mimi Lamargese was on top of
the world. It was his "system" that had
produced the winning number.
Signor Lamargese decided the lottery win
was a sign from God of his certified brilliance.
He began to talk loud and long about running
for political office, so that the entire nation
could benefit from his shrewdness.
Two brothers - Giuseppe and Franco -
By Raymond Canon
generation gap, and I can only think on my
time spent helping them go through the
vagaries of economics with an enormous
amount of pleasure.
Now that I have set the stage, let's look at a
few people who have done great things' after
the normal retirement age.
First of all, there was Konrad Adenauer who
found himself as the first chancellor (prime
minister) of West Germany when the country
was trying to pull itself up out of the ashes of
World War II. Nobody had ever heard of him
but his steady hand at the tiller, so to speak, set
the stage for the country's remarkable growth
starting in the 1960's. When he died, his
country, as well as leaders of many other
nations, paid him the highest of accolades.
Many of you have probably not heard of
Claudio Arrau, a Chilean pianist who
specialized in the works of Beethoven. He was
famous even before he reached the normal
retirement age but that did not seem to slow
him down. In his 90s, he was still going on
international tours and performing extremely
well.
When I heard him on the radio, I had to
constantly remind myself that this wonderful
performance was being produced by a man
who was over 90 years old.
I have never ceased to have a great deal of
admiration for Mother Teresa who continued
to make her presence felt in the world long
after she could have retired to a life of
meditation in some convent. The good Mother
could be a bit crotchety at times, not to
weren't listening to Lamargese's delusions of
grandeur - they had troubles of their own.
Before the big lottery win, the brothers had
been very close. Giuseppe had been set to
marry a girl named Jessica, and his brother
Franco would stand up as his best man.
But it turned out that Giuseppe had
decided not to buy a lottery ticket this time
around. Franco picked one up - and became
one of the fortunate hundred. Now, Giuseppe
is as poor as he's ever been, but Franco is a rich
man.
Guess who's courting Jessica.
Anyone who knew Peschici before the
lottery windfall would be hard-pressed to
recognize it today. There are fights in the
cafes, dark threats reverberate in the piazza.
Whole families whose histones have been
intertwined for centuries are no longer
speaking.
Many who used to drink grappa now dnnk
champagne, but they have fewer people to
drink it with.
I imagine more than a few of them have
become solitary drinkers anyway, sitting one
to a table, studiously ignoring the people
around them. Perhaps wordlessly lifting a
glass to "the good old days" in Peschici -
when everyone was hard up.
And they didn't know how really lucky they
were.
mention opinionated, but she never deviated
from her goal and, in this respect, even a sick
bed does not seem to have slowed her down
too much.
Many non-Christians came to be in awe of
her dynamic personality.
My hero among senior citizens has to be the
famous missionary Albert Schweizer who
resisted the urge to return to his native Alsace-
Lorraine in France so that he could stay at his
mission field in Lambarene in central Africa to
look after his flock. Not only was Schweizer a
medical missionary, he also enjoyed fame as
an accomplished organist and interpreter of
Bach and his treatise on the works of the
German writer Goethe was a great help to me
in my s.tudent days.
To be a medical missionary is a remarkable
accomplishment but add to that the role of
organist and literary critic and you become
something of a giant.
To paraphrase Karl Marx, "Seniors of the
world, unite, you have nothing to lose by
making yet another contribution to our
society."
I ~i
A Final Thought
All of us do not have equal talent, but all
of us should have an equal opportunity to
develop our talents.
John F. Kennedy
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp j
A damsel in distress
There's nothing makes me appreciate my
warrior more than an automotive breakdown.
Comedian Tim Allen says that men's sole
purpose on earth is lawn care and car
maintenance. While I may not agree with the
generalization I do harbour a female
chauvinistic view on those two chores.
Whether it's rooted in upbringing (Dad
traditionally looked after those 'guy' things) or
simply that I choose not to do them, I pretty
much fall back on stereotypes, particularly
playing the damsel in distress when it comes
to car trouble.
It's not always an enjoyable role in which to
cast myself. Last week, my son and I made a
trek to my hometown. On the return trip,
about 20 kms away from home, the car's
temperature gauge skyrocketed, bells were
ringing and lights were signalling. Pulling into
a service station, any relief soon dissipated
however, when I discovered the young male
working there couldn't help. I stared first in
stunned disbelief when he asked me how to
open the hood, then was nonplussed when he
just stood and stared.
You see, I automatically assume if it wears
a ball cap it can fix a car. (With the exception
of my son of course).
Finally an older man came to my rescue and
after investigation informed me I wasn't
driving this car anywhere. While there was
some dignity in knowing I couldn't have fixed
it even if I knew how, it didn't change the fact
I was in a bit of a predicament.
So I phoned my warrior — who 20 kms
away obviously couldn't fix it either.
He could however, run to my rescue. After a
thorough examination the diagnosis was much
the same as earlier and we abandoned the
invalid for the night.
But what kept playing through my mind was
the fact that from the time I phoned him, the
problem was no longer mine. Stranded I may
have been, but I knew with a certainty the
situation was no longer a worry for me. He
was on a pedestal and it was unnerving.
Fortunately, it didn't last long.
Men and women are equal. A marriage is a
partnership. We have stengths and we have
weaknesses.
When I look at my role in our household, I
am the administrator, the secretary. What I do
best is keep that household and those in it
running smoothly. I book appointments and
see they're kept. I pay the bills, buy the food,
look after hook-ups.
While I may be in awe of Mark's fix-it
abilities I can only chuckle when he programs
the VCR or tries to play on the computer. And
the man who can dismantle the interior of a
house and put it back together finds the
laundry a threatening challenge.
It's me who knows where the kids are and
who they're with. When it comes to the names
of their friends and who belongs with whom,
Mark is as lost as I was sitting on the edge of
the road. It's not that he's not interested, he
simply knows, as I do with the car, that it's
being looked after.
I'd say he has less reason to learn, though.
Left to his own devices, he'd have dirty
clothes, would miss some television programs
and a few appointments.
But at least he could get where he wanted to
go-